Part 1 of Essay
The Elder sat alone on a slab of granite outside a carelessly- erected tent on a Native reserve near Beardmore in northern Ontario, just east of Lake Nipigon. The previous night's rain was already drying off the ground, leaving only scattered mud patches in it's wake. Soon the early summer sun would turn these into crusty ....

Part 2 of Essay
.... more birds then, he thought, and more trees. The Elder walked a few steps to a creek to wash his hands. A very faint metallic odour met him as he bent down, but he did not notice it as his nose had long become insensitive. The Elder shook his hands dry and glanced up at the position of the sun. It was high overhead, indicating noontime. He sighed, knowing that in a couple of hours his son would bring his family from Toronto to visit him. He did not like his son very much, but he put up with the annu ....